The Office of Child Development and Early Learning is pleased to announce the availability of the Parent Activity Resource Guide, "Kindergarten, Here I Come!" 

"Kindergarten, Here I Come!" has been reprinted and is now available free of charge to kindergarten and pre-kindergarten practitioners for distribution to families with young children. 

These activity books are free and contain months of simple at-home activities for adults and preschoolers to do together during the year before Kindergarten.

Designed in calendar-format, the activity guide provides months of parenting information and at-home experiences that are linked to Pennsylvania’s Early Learning Standards and support children’s school readiness.

To obtain copies, email fulfill@wavelinedirect.com with the following information: 

# of boxes (75/box)

Name of Facility

Address (NO PO Boxes Please)

Phone Number

Contact Name

 Community Engagement Groups Supporting Children’s Transition from Preschool to Kindergarten

Transition involves the process of movement or change from one environment to another.  Transition for young children from one setting and type of activity to another is a very critical time in children’s lives.  How transitions into kindergarten are managed has the potential to impact their later school careers.  For children it means adjusting to a new setting, learning a new set of rules and behaviors, adjusting to new peer groups and teachers.  For parents, it is learning about and adjusting to school district policies, meeting and communicating with teachers, and sharing information and records about their children.

To support work in transition, Jason Downer, Ph.D. from the University of Virginia in the Center for Advanced Study of Teaching and Learning, a national authority on this issue, came to Pennsylvania in December 2006 to provide technical assistance to each of the Community Engagement Groups and teach strategies for developing transition plans.

Dr. Downer guided community engagement coordinators through the transition planning process using the developmental model of kindergarten transition developed by Robert Pianta and Marcia Kraft-Sayre. The model suggests fostering connections among children, families, schools and communities and is grounded in the following guiding principles:

Foster relationships as resources

Promote continuity from preschool to kindergarten

Focus on family strengths

Tailor practices to individual needs

Form collaborative relationships

In order to meet transition goals, community engagement groups’ responsibilities have included:

Developing local-level transition teams at elementary schools composed of parents, teachers, early childhood educators, and community leaders.  These teams work each year to identify ways in which the disparities between pre-school and elementary schools can be addressed and develop supports to offer to parents and children to facilitate successful transition experiences. 

Assisting those involved in a child’s transition helping to establish a process that occurs over time and includes a variety of practices with varying intensity and should be tailored to individual needs.

Fostering connections among children, families, schools and communities that are grounded in the guiding principle listed above. Types of connections are to include:

Child-School -To increase children’s familiarity with the classroom setting and those within it

Family-School - To increase family collaboration and involvement with the school and transition process

School-School - To provide children with stable classroom experiences across time

Community - To facilitate continuity in the transition process within the community

Developing ways to engage families so that they not only become vested in their child’s early learning experiences, but become local champions for quality early learning opportunities for all children in the community.

To find out more about transition activities in your community contact your local community engagement group.